Present Discontent

In his much hyped speech about health care to the joint session of Congress President Obama told a very sad story about a lady who had cancer and lost her insurance right before a much needed procedure. Why did she lose her insurance? She lost it because she failed to report a case of acne. That is awful and another example of those evil insurance companies!

But it seems that Joe Wilson was right about one thing. Our dear President was lying. Let’s refresh our memories on what exactly he said about that poor lady from Texas.

“Another woman from Texas was about to get a double mastectomy when her insurance company canceled her policy because she forgot to declare a case of acne.  By the time she had her insurance reinstated, her breast cancer had more than doubled in size.  That is heart-breaking, it is wrong, and no one should be treated that way in the United States of America.”

Seems that Robin Lynn Beaton, 59, of Waxahachie, Texas, did have her insurance suspended; and it was suspended right before a life saving procedure that she needed. But the problem is that she wasn’t suspended for an unreported case of acne. She lost her coverage when she failed to disclose a previous heart condition when enrolling in the plan. She also fibbed about her weight.

All was not lost, though, Ms. Beaton’s Representative, Republican Congressman Joe Barton and his staff worked with the insurance company and got her coverage reinstated. She got her surgery and she credits Barton and his staff with saving her life.

What we have here is a classic case of what Ann Coulter said – “If you want to know what the left is up to, pay attention to what they are accusing the right of.” Obama is just fear mongering. Yep, that is what the right has been accused of all summer and then the left’s fearless leader gets up on national TV and does it big time.

But to be fair, he said that transparency and accountability were going to be the touchstones of his administration. He said nothing about fear mongering, so that is evidently fair game.